Thursday 4th October

After the hiatus caused by the motorbike accident, when Dylan escaped from his audience for a while he released a series of strange and very mixed albums.  ‘John Wesley Harding’ was a quiet, almost biblical album full of drifters and saints and outlaws, hauntingly beautiful but a very different sounding Dylan.  Then came the sublime ‘Nashville Skyline’, a beautiful country album where his voice has never sounded sweeter.  ‘Self Portrait’ followed, where he seemed to be experimenting, singing old favourite songs and throwing the whole idea of fame back in our faces.  I love it and think it may actually be his lost masterpiece, but then, what do I know.  During much of ’67 he was holed up in Woodstock with the Band, and he later released the poor quality ‘Basement Tapes’ which had only a few good songs and a lot of dross on it.  A gap of three years then ‘New Morning’.  Was this an attempt at a comeback?  If so, it was a flop.  Some good songs though nothing really outstanding, and a lot of strange piano led numbers where you felt he wasn’t really trying.  You got the idea he might just be doing it for the money.  He was having difficult discussions with his record company who when he left them for one album released the truly awful ‘Dylan’ an album of covers far worse than on ‘Self Portrait’.  Then came a tour with The Band and an unexceptional live album followed by ‘Planet Waves’, a cold hard album which I have never really liked, despite a couple of reasonably good songs.

So what was happening to Dylan?  Was domestic happiness with Sara stifling his creativity?  Had he lost his muse, or was he just catching his breath, because within a year he was back with some of the best albums of his career.  This streak had nearly started with a 1973 album ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’, a mostly instrumental film soundtrack which included ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.’  Inexplicably it came out before ‘Planet Waves’, but is so hauntingly beautiful it should be lauded as one of his best.

So, a strange period, but none the less interesting for that.